Why Hearts' Historic Title Tilt Isn't as a Surprise.
JAMBOS BLAZING
Maybe the sole unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was just how surprised people seemed when reports of the outcome and its impact for the summit of the standings circulated. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the table and a significant margin ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in nature, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of either squad this campaign will have been in the least shocked by the final score.
Over the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to almost a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the current campaign it has become apparent that Hearts – who count celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – might just be prepared to strike while the Old Firm influence is at its weakest.
THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP
Although a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that Celtic's comparatively less severe decay has been able to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have so far lost 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to find out how many days are left until his deal expires, and woke up this day to discover the number is 246.
"I've never worked harder in all my time at the club," he told reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is there to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."
NEW CHALLENGER
Given the dreadful beginning to the campaign being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be anticipated to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. Despite being obliged to function with a budget that is not just a small portion of their rivals' as a minuscule amount in comparison, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and knowledge of Tony Bloom to the SPL equation. In addition to investing £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.
In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on Sunday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed celebrating each goal with the enthusiasm of a person who had likely noticed the bookies had massively misjudged his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots as a result.
MANAGER'S RESPONSE
"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth win in nine league matches. "It might be for those on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have given us. In terms of skill, we look in a good place, and certainly physically we seem in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, the Scottish game might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody other than the traditional powers can win.
